Monday's Scranton mayoral inauguration was held in a cramped city hall staircase and hallway. It was crowded. It was uncomfortable. The sight lines were awful. It's a staircase-- not a site for special events.
I've been at mayoral inaugurations on the front steps. I've been at another, off site, in the comfortable auditorium at Lackawanna College.
In its very first day, the new administration failed to think big, and it showed.
Scranton is begging for new ideas and solutions. Why not inaugurate the mayor at the Nay Aug bandshell? I know it's winter. If an outdoor inauguration is good enough for the president of the United States, it should be good enough for a mayor.
Center court at the Mall at Steamtown would have worked.
Move the inauguration to one of the schools. I'm sure the kids would enjoy seeing democracy in action. It might even inspire one of the leaders of tomorrow.
Any additional costs would have been minimal.
Jim McNulty held his inaugural ball in the then-vacant Oppenheim building because he wanted to show Al Boscov what the building looked like when it was filled with people. McNulty desperately wanted Boscov's in Scranton.
Say what you want about Jim McNulty, but you can't argue the point that he liked to do things differently.
We need different. We need big.
What we got was a cramped hallway, filled with the usual suspects.
